I didn’t know what to expect being asked to partake in the biggest detailing event ever recorded. I was just a part-time detailer from New Jersey, detailing for less than a year with my boyfriend and now I was being invited to detail seventeen planes at the Seattle Museum of Flight. The event was in preparation for Boeing’s Centennial Celebration and it was to span two weeks in April. It seemed surreal. I had never even seen a plane up close before, let alone polishing one for a party for thousands of people to see. Even though it was an honor to go, being one of only seventy detailers from around the country invited, I had to think hard about my decision. My boyfriend and I were planning a big move from New Jersey to Atlanta to take our detailing full time and open a business. We were in the process of finalizing a location for our shop and relentlessly looking for a house to rent. We had so many other things going on in our minds that taking off for a week to go to Seattle to detail planes all day seemed foolish. And with such little experience, would I even be permitted to detail any of the planes or just be running around handing out supplies all day? Would the cost of the plane tickets and hotel be worth the experience? It was hard to predict. But after careful consideration, my boyfriend and I decided to bite the bullet the go. What did we have to lose? After an awful six hour flight from Newark, New Jersey to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, we arrived exhausted, but eager to start working. Well, my boyfriend was eager. I was more nervous than anything. Everyone probably had more experience than me, I was probably one of the youngest, and probably one of the only women. Would I even be taken seriously? Am I even good enough? Would everyone think I was a joke? It was a rough night’s sleep for me and I didn’t wake up feeling any more confident, especially during the morning briefing in the lobby. It was there that I met the first thirty members of the crew. Some were there for the first week (team Alpha), like myself, and others were staying the full two weeks (Team Centennial). Team Bravo would then replace team Alpha at the end of the week to complete the project. And it was then that I realized all of my fears did true come: I did have the least experience, I was the second youngest, and I was only one of two women. I tried to hide my fear behind a smile as I shook hands and introduced myself to everyone. World renowned detailer Renny Doyle was the head of the project and he gave a quick overview of the vast amounts of work that were to lie ahead. I tried to pay attention, but my mind kept wandering as I was thinking of how this group of people were going to detail seventeen planes in two weeks. It seemed impossible. As we drove up to the Museum of Flight for the first time, I was overwhelmed. Obviously planes are big, but they seem infinitely bigger when you’re standing underneath them. The first plane I saw was Air Force One. It wasn’t even one of the biggest planes there, but one of its engines was about the size of a mid-sized car. I thought this plane alone would take two weeks, not including sixteen more. Fear came over me again. I started to doubt what the hell I was even doing there. This was Air Force One, not my neighbor’s Prius. I didn’t have the experience necessary to detail this plane. I didn’t want to mess anything up and ruin a part of history. We had a few hours to walk around and talk amongst ourselves while everything got set up. My boyfriend and I decided to walk inside Air Force One and give ourselves a tour. I’m not the type to be star-struck, but I definitely felt star-struck by that plane. President Dwight Eisenhower, President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and President Richard Nixon had all walked through the door and sat in that plane. And according to the head of maintenance, so had Marilyn Monroe (twice). This plane was a piece of history and me, a part-time detailer from New Jersey, would be detailing it. The thirty of us got split into teams and placed in various positions along Air Force One to start wiping it down. Wiping down the plane – that’s something easy I could do. So, everyone worked together to clean all of the painted surfaces, the wheels, tops of the engines, and wings. Once the plane was cleaned, it was time to start polishing the paint. I didn’t think I would be trusted to polish the paint of any of the planes, let alone Air Force One. But when my team leader told me to grab my polisher, I obeyed. I was scared, but happy to know that regardless of my lack of experience, I was considered just “one of the guys”. As I started to polish, I noticed the difference between polishing a car versus polishing a plane. I wasn’t removing scratches or swirls. I was basically just removing a layer of dirt and grime off of the plane that was too stuck-on to be removed by wiping it. After a few passes it looked a lot cleaner and I could move onto the next section. Even though I was polishing the plane with everyone else, I still didn’t feel competent enough to be there. I was doing my best and doing a good job, but I just didn’t feel like anyone took me seriously. What was a pretty young girl doing in Seattle detailing planes? She must just be here for a novelty. After a ten hour day, we had barely made a dent in the work ahead. We didn’t even finish one plane and still had sixteen more to go. I was exhausted, but this was only the end of day one. Day three is when we started to polish the aluminum on the Boeing 737. I had heard from the returning members how difficult it was to polish and I felt more nervous than ever. I had never polished aluminum and I knew how precisely it had to be done in order for the plane to look perfect. After a demonstration, we were set up into groups of three. Each member in the group had to move perfectly in sync with each other, matching their polishing speed exactly. I was nominated in the group to call out the directions – right, down, left, up. Remembering back to my cheerleading days of shouting out cheers, I yelled them as loud and deeply as I could so I could be heard over the other thirty polishers running at the same time. Some of the team leaders and other members were comparing me to a drill sergeant, saying how good of a job I was doing keeping the three of us in sync. But I felt like I was only getting that compliment because I was a girl, not because I was actually doing a good job. The feeling of myself being a novelty came over me again and it got me down. I just wanted to be treated like everyone else, which is hard to do when you’re the only one with a long braided pony tail and who’s there with her boyfriend. But I had to suck it up and move on. Fifteen more planes to do. The next day was more aluminum polishing, but this time on the B29 Bomber. This was the coolest plane in the museum. It was used to complete 37 bombing missions during WWII and is the only fully operational B29 Bomber in the world – and I was going to detail it. We were split up into teams of three again and I felt more confident about the aluminum. And for the first time all week, I was having fun. I was covered in black aluminum splatters all over my face and my clothes and loving every minute of it. The day ended and we headed back to the hotel. I had a smile on, excited to come back the next morning and do it all over again. This was becoming my new normal: waking up exhausted at 6 AM, washing my aluminum/polished stained clothing in the hotel sink, lugging my equipment down the elevator to the breakfast buffet, getting in the van, and driving to the museum. And by about the fourth day, everyone was starting to become bonded. I had met everyone and almost remembered everyone’s name. I had found a group of friends to whom I had become attached to. And I learned that every person there had a story that was so vastly different than my own. Some were old, some young, all different races, religions, backgrounds. I met people from all around the country – from Alaska to Hawaii to Texas to North Dakota. We were all so different, yet all there for the same purpose. And in that sense, we were all the same. It made me feel more connected to everyone, especially those who had never been on the project before. Regardless of their previous detailing experience, when it came to planes, they were a newbie just like me. But although this made me feel more connected, the differences were in plain sight: I was the young woman in the group and earning a challenge coin didn’t make me feel any better. Every morning before we got started working, a challenge coin was given to a person that was working really hard the previous day or showed good leadership or just stood out from the pack as a valuable team member. Renny held the coin in this hand and gave a small speech about the person who was going to receive it. On the fifth day, he said that this person was a minority among detailers, was working really hard, is overcoming obstacles, is not only young, but a female, etc. etc. I knew after the first few words who was going to receive the coin – it was me. I graciously accepted and took the high-fives and hugs and congratulations from the guys around me. I knew I was working hard, but something about receiving the coin didn’t feel right. Renny had told me I should be proud of myself, which is a huge compliment coming from him, but I didn’t fully believe it. I still didn’t feel good enough and like the novelty. A pretty young girl from New Jersey who came here with her boyfriend – that was what everyone saw. It wasn’t until later that until I started to shake this feeling. I had to realize and accept that I was different from everyone there. I am young, I don’t have a lot of experience, I am a woman. But yet I was keeping up with everyone in the group. In the detailing world I have to accept these facts. There aren’t many women detailers out there, especially ones so young. It is what makes me different and I have to be proud of that. And what I should be most proud of is that I accomplished something that not many people can say they have done – detailed seventeen historic planes at the Museum of Flight, including Air Force One. I did that, a barely part-time detailer from New Jersey. I left Seattle feeling bitter sweet. Because I left after the first week, I never got to see the finished project. I worked so hard on these planes, but never got to see the final result in person. I also left with my challenge coin, feeling now that I actually earned it and should be proud of myself. If anyone on that project felt that I couldn’t detail, I bet I changed their minds. I might not have been the best, but I probably learned the most, about detailing and about myself. I shouldn’t doubt myself in any situation, especially when I have no reason to. Before I left, I never imagined I would be able to detail those planes, but I left feeling so much more confident in my detailing abilities. If I can handle detailing a plane, detailing a black car with finicky paint seems like no big deal. And that goes for any challenge I will face in the future. You can let your mind go wild with negative, self-doubting thoughts. But if you trust yourself, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.